When Your Kids Graduate UConnThe State May Be Able To Keep Following Them

On the Connecticut P20 website, we are told that

Connecticut needs a system for linking data across the agencies that serve individuals as they progress from early childhood through educational programs and into the workforce.

Yes, the state of Connecticut wants to collect information about your children from preschool all the way to age 20. And by the way, this was the brainchild of the Federal governement:

The process began with funding from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education in 2009.

The P20 website also states:

The State Department of Education (SDE), The Board of Regents for Higher Education (BOR) and the Department of Labor (DOL) are actively collaborating to implement the P20 WIN System. A cross-agency data governance structure has been formed, data sharing agreements have been approved and the technical infrastructure is being developed. The system is designed with the flexibility to expand to include connections to early childhood data, independent colleges and the University of Connecticut.  

Well, the system is on its way to being expanded. To include the University of Connecticut.

Connecticut House Bill No. 5381 was raised this year on February 26. A substitute was submitted on March 13. And the Committee on Higher Education and Employment Advancement passed that substitute on April 7 and is now on its way to becoming law.

According to the Office of Legislative Research

This bill requires UConn, in collaboration with the Board of Regents for Higher Education and the Education and Labor departments, to develop and implement the “P20 WIN” system to report on its graduates' success, by major, with regard to employment and earnings. Under the bill, the “P20 WIN” system, also known as the “Preschool through 20 Workforce Information Network”:

1. securely and privately links data across agencies and departments that serve individuals from early childhood through elementary and secondary school and into the adult workforce and

2. provides the data to “education and workforce leaders” to help them understand patterns over time and make decisions to improve outcomes for individuals and the state.

The bill does not specify the types of data the system shares, the people or entities it shares with, or the particular purpose for which it can be used [emphasis mine].

The part that I find most interesting in all of this though, is how the bill changed from the time it was proposed to the time it was passed. Here's the wording of it as it was first proposed:
And here's what it looked like when it passed:


Notice the difference? An important sentence was removed from lines 11 and 12:

By taking out the line "none of which may contain personally identifiable information", the state is clearly saying that it wants to be able to include that information in their databases. And of course, we already know just who that information can be shared with.

In case you've missed it along the way, here is a list of the data they actually want to collect at the college level. And for those of you who don't grasp that this is happening in grade schools too, here's the list of what the data they want on that level. Be sure to scroll all the way down.

The state can't make laws insisting that colleges outside of Connecticut share data with them. But they can do it for all schools that get Connecticut funding. And they are.

There is still time to share your thoughts with your state senator about HB 5381 before they vote on it.